Sa talumpati nito sa kanyang thanksgiving mass noong Martes ng gabi sa harap ng Admin Bldg. 229 sa Subic Bay, ilang oras makaraang manumpa bilang bagong talagang Chairperson at Administrator ng SBMA, pinasalamatan ni Atty. Wilma Eisma ang SBMA board of directors, ang Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce, mga empleyado at opisyal ng SBMA maging ang local media sa aniya’y pagbabantay sa kaniyang mahaba at masalimuot na laban na natuldukan na sa wakas.

Ayon kay Eisma, ang kanyang tagumpay ay hindi lang tagumpay ng isang tao bagkus ay tagumpay ng buong Subic Bay at ng mga mamamayan. Binigyang diin din ni Eisma na hindi nya hinangad ang naturang posisyon subalit nakahanda sya sa anumang hamong nakatadhana para sa kaniya.

Ayon kay Eisma, ang kanyang tagumpay ay hindi lang tagumpay ng isang tao bagkus ay tagumpay ng buong Subic Bay at ng mga mamamayan. Binigyang diin din ni Eisma na hindi nya hinangad ang naturang posisyon subalit nakahanda sya sa anumang hamong nakatadhana para sa kaniya.

Sa eksklusibong panayam ng SBC News, inilatag ni Eisma ang kanyang pangunahing agenda bilang Chairman at Administrator ng SBMA. Una na rito ang pagkakaroon ng Compliance Hotline, ang pagpapalakas ng Airport at Seaport at ang pagtutok sa Redondo Peninsula na binansagan nyang “promised land” ng Subic Bay.

Sa huli’y pinasalamatan ni Eisma si Dino na aniya’y may naging importanteng papel din sa maiksing pamumuno nito sa SBMA.

Source: Subic Broadcasting Corporation @ Facebook

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SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – After months of debacle regarding the assumption of authority in the agency, a decision has been finally issued by Malacañan declaring Atty. Wilma “Amy” T. Eisma as both Chairperson and Administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

Appointed in September 23, 2016, the former SBMA Chairman Martin B. Diño was a presidential aspirant in the national election but withdrew and nominated former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte as his substitute standard bearer of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).

Newly appointed SBMA Chairperson and Administrator Atty. Wilma T. Eisma holds hands with fellow agency officials and families in prayer during a thanksgiving mass

Since then, former Chairman Diño locked horns not only with Administrator Eisma but also with the previous Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the SBMA Administrator Atty. Randy B. Escolango (who has since been appointed as Deputy Commissioner of the Insurance Commission, Department of Finance) over the bounds of their authorities. In addition, Diño was also in conflict with the Agency’s Board of Directors and other officials for allegedly overstepping beyond his functions as Chairman in the Government Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC).

In an appointment letter dated September 25, President Duterte appointed Atty. Eisma as Chairperson and Administrator of the Agency for a term which will expire on June 30, 2022. Moreover, the separation of the position of Chairman and Administrator of SBMA as stipulated by Executive Order 340 (S. 2004) by then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was ultimately repealed by Executive Order 42 signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Madialdea.
The development came as welcome change by both employees of the agency and the various locators in the Freeport, most of whom explicitly made their support of Eisma known to Malacañan. In lieu of an extravagant celebration, the agency instead chose to hold a thanksgiving mass on September 26 to commemorate the event.

After the mass, employees and officials of the agency took to the stage to give short speeches regarding the situation. Most expressed their relief at the conclusion of the conflict which caused unnecessary confusion and delays in the operations of the agency in the past.

The first person who gave a speech was Ameth dela Llana, head of the SBMA’s Ecology Center and one of the most outspoken critics of former Chairman Dino. In her speech she described the development as an answered prayer and even thanked the former Chairman for “bringing out the best” in everyone and “uniting them in their goals”. She added that it was Dino’s actions which motivated everyone to show malasakit (an approximate translation of which is protective concern) toward the agency despite their fears. She closed by saying that with all of these experiences, everyone is better off with the knowledge that they can now handle “whatever adversity may come in the future”.

Other employees and officials who also shared stories were: Socorro Esteban, an employee under the agency’s Labor Department and former high school classmate of Atty. Eisma; Atty. Ramon O. Agregado, Senior Deputy Administrator for Internal Services; and Benny D. Antiporda, a member of the Agency’s Board of Directors.

As an admitted adherent of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series, Atty. Eisma walked to the stage to the tune of the series theme and accompanied by applause and cheers from the crowd. After thanking the attendees for their overwhelming support, she declared that her actions as both chairperson and administrator will be dictated not by how it will make her term appear successful but instead by how the Freeport and the surrounding areas will improve in the long run.

She elaborated by saying that, “this is my home and I would like to provide a beautiful home and a prosperous home to… …our grandchildren – so that has always been my goal.”

Atty. Eisma, front and center, during her impassioned speech regarding her experiences these past few months

“I wanted to give up. It was not easy. I did not ask for this job. If not for the overwhelming love and support that I get from you each and every time, I would have given up a long time ago because it was so much easier to walk away,” she noted

“This is not a victory for myself but a victory for the SBMA. There should be no gloating. We should all be magnanimous in this decision.” She then described how she never liked being congratulated and how it always made her cringe, and that now, this decision by Malacanan ultimately means that there’s more hard work in store for her and the agency.

“I cannot do this alone. I can provide you moral compass, leadership and vision but at the end of the day this cannot be done by any single person. The rest is all up to you. So we have to work together to make it happen”

She went on to share about her initial hesitation to even accept the offer for the position of Administrator late last year. She revealed how afraid she was of not being up to the task and how some people from the ranks of the agency seemed to question her capability to lead. It took her considerable time to gather herself and be confident in the task that she would ultimately undertake.

The new Chairperson and Administrator closed by saying that her job in the end is to unite everyone in purpose and to remind them what Malasakit is all about, “the basics of caring for each other and the basics of caring for SBMA.”

“The volunteers are all of us now. You don’t have to be the ones from 1992. The volunteers are everyone who stepped forward. It’s a fight for justice between good and evil – and good has prevailed.”

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President Rodrigo Duterte has repealed an executive order issued by former President and incumbent Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that created separate posts for Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority administrator and chairperson.

Duterte has signed on September 25 Executive Order No. 42 merging the SBMA administrator and chairperson posts. The SBMA administrator will also be the chief executive officer of the SBMA.

Executive Order No. 42 repeals Executive Order No. 340 issued by Arroyo in 2004.

“The President shall appoint the Administrator of the SBMA, who shall be the ex officio Chairman of the SBMA Board,” Duterte’s EO read.

The powers, functions, and duties of the SBMA administrator would be as follows, with new or updated items in bold:

To execute, administer and implement the policies and measures approved and adopted by the SBMA Board;
To directly administer and supervise the operations and day-to-day business activities of the SBMA;
To exercise the powers of control and supervision over decisions and actions of subordinate officers;
To appoint, transfer, remove, suspend or otherwise discipline any employee of the SBMA in accordance with law;
To represent the SBMA in all dealings with offices, agencies and instrumentalities of the Government and with all persons and entities, public or private, domestic or foreign, unless otherwise directed by the President or by the SBMA Board;
To sign all permits, certificates, authorizations, and other official documents issued by the SBMA in the exercise of its governmental, regulatory, propriety, and commercial powers;
To execute, on behalf of the SBMA, all contracts, agreements and other instruments affecting the interests of the SBMA or where the SBMA is a contracting party, duly approved by the SBMA Board;
To direct and supervise the preparation of the agenda for the meetings of the SBMA Board;
To preside at the meetings of the SBMA Board; and
To perform such other functions and duties as the President may direct, or as may be assigned to him/her by the SBMA Board.
The order will take effect immediately.

Malacañang, meanwhile, is yet to clarify how the executive order would affect SBMA administrator Wilma Eisma and Chairman Martin Diño.

Duterte appointed Eisma as administrator in December 2016 amid a power struggle at the SBMA following Diño’s administrative order declaring that he is assuming “the functions of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman/Administrator pursuant to Republic Act No. 7227.”

Then SBMA administrator Roberto Garcia resigned from his post.

Source: gmanetwork.com

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Atty. Wilma T. Eisma swears in as the Chairperson and Administrator of SBMA by virtue of Executive Order no. 42 that repeals EO 340, an earlier EO that split SBMA’s leadership.

by Lolito Go

photo credits: Bong Eisma and Jonas Reyes

Eisma is the first woman to have been appointed to the post. With this, the leadership brawl in SBMA has finally come to an end. We can only hope that the other party will take the matter with humility and magnanimity so we can move forward and harness all our energies and resources instead for the fruition of our dreams of a greater Subic Bay.

To Atty. Eisma, we believed in you and we continue to believe in you for as long as you keep up your longstanding work ethics and philosophies. For as long as you keep up your lowkey leadership principles, which are divorced from politics and the usual hedonistic intentions of those who are in power.

We will celebrate this day not just because of one man’s—or I should say one woman’s—victory but because of a grander victory that belongs to the people, especially those who work or do business inside the Freeport. “Political will” also scores a win from this executive decision. It means that the government cannot be swayed (at least not all the time) by partisanship and political beholdenness.

You have our back, Ms. Amy. You are destined to lead the way and purge Subic Bay of its parasites. You have more balls and guts than all of them guys put together. You put the ACE in Eisma. And everybody knows that the ACE trumps the KING at any given time.

Source: facebook.com

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The powers and functions of Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Martin Dino have been transferred to SBMA Administrator Wilma Eisma.

This was contained in an Executive Order (EO) Number 42.

The document was signed in the Palace yesterday.

This supercedes the Executive Order previously issued by Former President Gloria Arroyo that gave separate tasks to the SBMA Chairman and the SBMA Administrator.

The EO did not state any reason for the move.

Dino is reportedly set to be appointed to a post at the Department of Interior and Local Government.

Source: thestandard.com.ph

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